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2 Mar 2017

Huge Carbon Release From Massive Permafrost Thaw

Huge
slabs of Arctic permafrost in northwest Canada are slumping and
disintegrating, sending large amounts of carbon-rich mud and silt into
streams and rivers. A new study that analyzed nearly a half-million
square miles in northwest Canada found that this permafrost decay is
affecting 52,000 square miles of that vast stretch of earth—an expanse
the size of Alabama.

According to researchers with the Northwest Territories Geological Survey,
the permafrost collapse is intensifying and causing landslides into
rivers and lakes that can choke off life downstream, all the way to
where the rivers discharge into the Pacific Ocean.

Similar
large-scale landscape changes are evident across the Arctic including
in Alaska, Siberia and Scandinavia, the researchers wrote in a paper
published in the journal Geology
in early February. The study didn't address the issue of greenhouse gas
releases from thawing permafrost. But its findings could help quantify
the immense global scale of the thawing, which will contribute to more
accurate estimates of carbon emissions.

Permafrost
is land that has been frozen stretching back to the last ice age,
10,000 years ago. As the Arctic warms at twice the global rate, the
long-frozen soils thaw and decompose, releasing the trapped greenhouse
gases into the air. Scientists estimate that the world's permafrost holds twice as much carbon as the atmosphere.

The
new study was aimed at measuring the geographical scope of thawing
permafrost in northwest Canada. Using satellite images and other data,
the team studied the edge of the former Laurentide Ice Sheet, a vast
expanse of ice that covered two-thirds of North America during the last
ice age. The disintegration of the permafrost was visible in 40- to
60-mile wide swaths of terrain, showing that, "extensive landscapes
remain poised for major climate-driven change."

"Things
have really taken off. Climate warming is now making that happen. It's
exactly what we should expect with climate change," said Steven V.
Kokelj, lead scientist on the Canadian mapping project. "And the maps
that we produced clearly indicated it's not just a random pattern. We're
sort of connecting dots here for the scientific community."

Other
global evidence of similar large-scale permafrost changes have recently
been documented in Siberia, where scientists with the Permafrost Laboratory
at the University of Sussex (UK) are monitoring another rapidly growing
scar in the earth. More than a half-mile of once-frozen ground has
collapsed 280-feet deep, according to their study published in in the journal Quaternary Research in February.
The researchers said they expect to see the rolling tundra landscape
transform, including the formation of large new valleys and lakes.

Similar
signs are evident in coastal Arctic areas, where thawing permafrost and
bigger waves are taking 60- to 70-foot bites of land each year,
according to researchers with the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and
Marine Research. Writing in the journal Nature Climate Change in
January, AWI scientists warned about collapsing coastlines and urged
more research, with input from policymakers and native communities.

University of Alberta scientists Suzanne Tank, who was not involved
in the new study, said that the release of sediments from the new slumps
in the Canadian permafrost has significant ecological implications. The
pulses of silt, mud and gravel make streams murkier and limit growth of
aquatic plants at the base of the food chain. Exactly how that affects
other species, including fish, is the subject of ongoing research.

Scientists
know thawing permafrost unlocks carbon. But according to Tank, most of
the carbon in the Canadian melting is being released quickly as coarse
particles that aren't converted to CO2 immediately. But separate research
by Swedish scientists suggests that the soil particles are quickly
converted to heat-trapping CO2 when they are swept into the sea.

A series of studies on the National Institute of Health's Arctic Health website
documents how the widespread thaw of permafrost is already having
direct impacts on people. Warmer water and increased sediment loads are
harming lake trout, an important source of food for native communities.
Changes to the land surface are also disrupting caribou breeding and
migration, and in some places, the disappearing permafrost has destroyed
traditional food storage cellars, researchers have found.

At
lower latitudes, permafrost is the glue that holds the world's highest
mountains together by keeping rocks and soil frozen in place. Scientists
are documenting how those bonds are dissolving, said Stefan
Reisenhofer, a climate scientist with the Austrian Bureau of Meteorology
and Geodynamics.

"We've
seen a significant reduction in the number of ice days (those with 24
hours of sub-freezing temperatures), especially in the summer months,"
said Reisenhofer, who works at a climate observatory at an elevation of
8,500 feet. "From 2010 to 2014, the number of ice days decreased by 11
in May, and 10 in June." During that span, the mountain beneath the
research station crumbled, requiring a huge investment to stabilize the
outpost, he said.

Using
satellite images from the European Space Agency's Copernicus program,
the Austrian researchers have shown how, similar to the findings in
Canada, thawing permafrost has unleashed huge amounts of sediments below
receding glaciers. Intensifying summer rainstorms have triggered huge
landslides, damaging roads, power lines and water infrastructure,
according to a recent evaluation of satellite images by Austrian climate researchers.

In
some areas, there are new restrictions on development as the landslides
grow bigger, reaching all the way to the valley floors.

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